Deeside firm to help supersonic jet car smash world land speed record

A SUPERSONIC jet car that aims to smash the world land speed record by travelling 1,000mph is being backed by a Deeside aviation firm.

Bloodhound SSC – a car with both a rocket and jet engine – has been designed to shatter the current land speed record of 763mph when it arrives in Hakskeen Pan, South Africa, in 2015.

Deeside based PPA Group, a leading manufacturer of composites and aviation components, is part of the project team – responsible for designing and manufacturing the canopy and porthole side windows for the car.

The Bloodhound SSC project team, led by Richard Noble, who held the land speed record between 1983 and 1997, chose to work with PPA by recommendation.

Conor La Grue, Engineering and Product Sponsorship Lead, said: “We were immediately sure the PPA Group was the right company to produce the high speed transparencies for the Bloodhound SSC.

"We require the hardest working screen for the necessary speed at which the car will be travelling, and we feel in safe hands with PPA.”

The canopy and side windows are being crafted using specialist aviation-grade acrylic. It is moulded and heated to form the exact dimensions and structure required, and will be tested to withstand heat build-up and air pressure.

“The entire PPA team certainly has a can-do attitude and a passion to deliver a great final product. That comes across in everything they say and do,” said Conor La Grue.

The car

Bloodhound SSC is exactly what it says - a SuperSonic Car.

It is supersonic because it is designed to go faster than the speed of sound.

It is a car because it has four wheels and is under full control of its driver.

Bloodhound SSC is a jet and rocket powered car designed to go at 1,000 mph (just over 1,600 kph). It has a slender body of approximately 14m length with two front wheels within the body and two rear wheels mounted externally within wheel fairings. It weighs over 7 tonnes and the engines produce more than 135,000 horsepower - more than 6 times the power of all the Formula 1 cars on a starting grid put together!

The Car is a mix of car and aircraft technology, with the front half being a carbon fibre monocoque like a racing car and the back half being a metallic framework and panels like an aircraft.

Land speed record

The current holder of the Outright World Land Speed Record is ThrustSSC, a twin turbofan jet-powered car which achieved 763.035 mph - 1227.985 km/h - over one mile in October 1997. This was the first supersonic record as it broke the sound barrier at Mach 1.016.